Picasso's heirs challenge in the Aix-en-Provence court the authenticity of silver dishes and gold medallions
The heirs of Pablo Picasso are going to law over counterfeit silver dishes and gold medallions made after his designs.
A preliminary investigation on the complaint of Paloma Ruiz-Picasso, filed on behalf of nine heirs, is being conducted by the court in Aix-en-Provence. The case file speaks of fraud, counterfeiting, forgery and the concealment of these offences.
The story goes back to 1955, when Picasso commissioned from the jeweller François Hugo, incidentally a great-grandson of Victor Hugo, silver dishes in the technique of chasing, after drawings close to his ceramics. According to the heirs, the moulds were later reused and, without permission, silver and gold items were produced, including duplicates and pieces without numbers.
The Picasso estate's administration has identified no fewer than 17 suspect collections, comprising hundreds of objects worth millions of euros. Nicolas Hugo, grandson of the founder of the Ateliers Hugo workshop, maintains that he himself never made any Picasso pieces. In 2021 Sotheby's sold in London a set of 24 dishes for £1.4 million, and in 2023 Bonhams postponed in Paris the sale of 95 lots from the Hugo workshop. Who exactly made the disputed objects remains unknown
